The first one if from John Dehlin and it mirrored my feelings exactly:
"I think that every single mormon on the planet has the right to know the factual record as it relates to the church's origins, everyone should be able to make a conscious decision with all the information on the table." John Dehlin
I have been asked: "why does the truth matter so much since the church tells me to be good?" The Truth matters very much too me. It should also matter to the church since it claims to the the one and only true church on the earth, and it's founder was "seeking truth". People also try to separate the church's historical origins with it's claim to truth today, this simply cannot be done, a church can't begin with a false prophet and be true 150 years later. It makes me sad that so many have been lied to. It is not easy to realize that all you have known is a lie - it hurts, and it hurts more that nobody wants to understand, the people that are most important in my life are too afraid to consider the possibility that it is false. This quote has given me strength to look for thr truth even if it is hard.
"We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth or our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather that what feels good." Carl Sagan
This next quote is along those lines.
"Some myths deserve to be broken apart, out of respect for the human intellect." Neil D. Tyson
That is an amazing insight to me. If God gave us our amazingly capable brains, why should we surrender them to blind faith and councils of men that require complete obedience whether they are right or wrong. If I can see that evidence exists that the Book of Abraham is a complete fabrication, why should I give my life to religion that says it is true? If my wife had a black baby, and it's DNA did not match mine, would it make sense for me to take it on faith when she tells me she never cheated on me? NO! So why would I believe Joseph Smith and his successors? I have the right to follow my brain, my conscience.
"Faith is the surrender of the mind, the surrender of reason, those are the only things that separate us from other mammals." Chistopher Hitchens
"Truth transcends any faith in fiction"
“Always keep your eye on the President of the church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, even if it is wrong, and you do it, the lord will bless you for it, but you don’t need to worry. The lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray.”
- Apostle Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, Oct. 1960, p. 78
“When the Prophet speaks the debate is over.”
- Apostle N. Eldon Tanner, Ensign, Aug. 1979, pp. 2-3.
"Each of us has to face the matter—either the Church is true, or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and kingdom of God, or it is nothing."
Gordon B. Hinckley - 2003 conference talk.
"The Church needs to be honest with its history and contradictions...instead they make us who have discovered the complicating facts look like the evil ones. My family believes I am being deceived by Satan, when it is the Church and general authorities who have deceived us."
“If, after a rigid examination, it be found an imposition, it should be extensively published to the world as such; the evidences and arguments on which the imposture was detected, should be clearly and logically stated, that those who have been sincerely yet unfortunately deceived, may perceive the nature of the deception and be reclaimed, and that those who continue to publish the delusion, may be exposed and silenced....”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon
“... convince us of our errors of doctrine, if we have any, by reason, by logical arguments, or by the Word of God, and we will be ever grateful for the information, and you will ever have the pleasing reflection that you have been instruments in the hands of God of redeeming your fellow beings from the darkness which you may see enveloping their minds.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, pp. 15-16
"I think a full, free talk is frequently of great use; we want nothing secret nor underhanded, and I for one want no association with things that cannot be talked about and will not bear investigation."
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 20, p. 264
“And none are required to tamely and blindly submit to a man because he has a portion of the priesthood. We have heard men who hold the priesthood remark, that they would do anything they were told to do by those who presided over them, if they knew it was wrong; but such obedience as this is worse than folly to us; it is slavery in the extreme; and the man who would thus willingly degrade himself should not claim a rank among intelligent beings, until he turns from his folly. A man of God... would spite the idea. Others, in the extreme exercise of their almighty authority have taught that such obedience was necessary, and that no matter what the saints were told to do by their presidents, they should do it without asking any questions. When Elders of Israel will so far indulge in these extreme notions of obedience as to teach them to people, it is generally because they have it in their minds to do wrong themselves.”
- Apostle Charles W. Penrose, Millennial Star, v. 14, no. 38, pp. 593-595
“We should be scientific – that is, open-minded, approaching new problems without prejudice, deferring a decision until all the facts are in.”
- Apostle Hugh B. Brown, “A Final Testimony,” from An Abundant Life, 1999
"You can leave the Church and not leave who you are behind. You can retain the good within yourself because that good is not a product of the Church. It may have been fostered by the Church, but in truth the good within you is your own to take with you wherever you wish to go in life."
"Come on! ye persecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet... When they can get rid of me, the devil will also go."
Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church, v. 6, pp. 408-409
“No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are—I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent. He holds the keys of that kingdom for the last dispensation—the keys to rule in the spirit world; and he rules there triumphantly, for he gained full power and a glorious victory over the power of Satan while he was yet in the flesh, and was a martyr to his religion and to the name of Christ, which gives him a most perfect victory in the spirit world. He reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. Many will ex-claim—“Oh, that is very disagreeable! It is preposterous! We cannot bear the thought!” But it is true.”
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Vol. 7, Page 289.
"Joseph was very free in his talk about his women. He told me one day of a certain girl and remarked, that she had given him more pleasure than any girl he had ever enjoyed. I told him it was horrible to talk like this."
- Joseph Smith's close confidant and First Counselor, William Law, Interview in Salt Lake Tribune, July 31, 1887
Emily D. Partridge (Smith Young) said she 'roomed' with Joseph the night following her marriage to him and said that she had 'carnal intercourse' with him. (Temple Lot case, (complete transcript), pp. 364, 367, 384; see Foster, 'Religion and Sexuality,' p. 15.)
William Clayton
Joseph Smith's personal secretary records that on May 22nd, 1843, Smith's first wife Emma found Joseph and Eliza Partridge secluded in an upstairs bedroom at the Smith home. Emma was devastated. (William Clayton's journal entry for 23 May; see Smith, pp. 105-106)
William Clayton also recorded a visit to young Almera Johnson on May 16, 1843: 'Prest. Joseph and I went to B[enjamin] F. Johnson's to sleep.'Johnson himself later noted that on this visit Smith stayed with Almera 'as man and wife' and 'occupied the same room and bed with my sister, that the previous month he had occupied with the daughter of the late Bishop Partridge as his wife.' Almera Johnson also confirmed her secret marriage to Joseph Smith: 'I lived with the prophet Joseph as his wife and he visited me at the home of my brother Benjamin F.' (Zimmerman, I Knew the Prophets, p. 44; see also The Origin of Plural Marriage, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., Deseret News Press, pp. 70-71.)
"It was a subject of common talk among many good people in Nauvoo that many of the elders were sent off on missions merely to get them out of the way, and that Joseph Smith, John C. Bennett and other prominent Church lights had illicit intercourse with the wives of a number of the missionaries, and that the revelation on spiritual marriage, i.e. polygamy, was gotten up to protect themselves from scandal."
Benjamin Winchester, stake president in the church in the 1830s and 1840s.
In the July 1838 edition of the Elder's Journal ("Edited by Joseph Smith") Joseph Smith answered some questions including the following:
"Question 7th. Do the Mormons believe in having more wives than one?"Answer. No, not at the same time. But they believe that if their companion dies, they have a right to marry again. But we do disapprove of the custom which has gained in the world, and has been practiced among us, to our great mortification, of marrying in five or six weeks, or even in two or three months after the death of their companion."We believe that due respect ought to be had, to the memory of the dead, and the feelings of both friends and children."
(Elder's Journal, Vol 1, No. 3, p 43; reprinted in History of the Church Vol 3, p 38)
In 1850, Mormon apostle John Taylor published a tract in England:
"We are accused here of polygamy,... and actions the most indelicate, obscene, and disgusting, such that none but a corrupt and depraved heart could have contrived. These things are too outrageous to admit of belief;... I shall content myself by reading our views of chastity and marriage, from a work published by us containing some of the articles of our Faith. 'Doctrine and Covenants,' page 330... Inasmuch as this Church of Jesus Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in the case of death,..."'
(A tract published by John Taylor in 1850, page 8; Orson Pratt's Works, 1851 edition)
By 1850, Mormon leaders were sharing their lies about polygamy to an international audience. At the time he published his tract, wherein he quoted verbatim from the "Article on Marriage," Taylor had seven wives. And, to repeat---the "Article on Marriage" was REPUBLISHED in the 1854 edition of the D&C---two years AFTER Brigham Young publicly announced plural marriage in Utah.
- "Now, sisters, list to what I say:
With trials this world is rife,
You can't expect to miss them all,
Help husband get a wife! - "Now, this advice I freely give,
If exalted you would be,
Remember that your husband must
Be blessed with more than thee. - "Then, O, let us say,
God bless the wife that strives
And aids her husband all she can
T' obtain a dozen wives."
Reference: 1856 Reformation Song. Used as a Hymn in an edition of Songs of Zion. Utah Historical Quarterly, 1928, p. 58.
"I will here notice what Brother Joseph F. Smith was talking of this morning. It was said to Joseph Smith, the prophet, “according to your faith and the teachings of your Elders, nobody will be saved but you, Mormons; now, Mr. Smith, will all be damned but the Mormons?” Jos. Smith replied, “yes, and the most of them, unless they repent and do better.”
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Vol. 11 Page 271.
“What a pity it would be, if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blink self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken the influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not. This has been my exhortation continually.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 9, p. 150
“How easy it would be for your leaders to lead you to destruction, unless you actually know the mind and will of the spirit yourselves.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 3, p. 45
“The Lamanites or Indians are just as much the children of our Father and God as we are. So also are the Africans. But we are also the children of adoption through obedience to the Gospel of his Son. Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a sin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to. The volition of the creature is free; this is a law of their existence, and the Lord cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would cease to be God.”
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11 page 272
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